


Moments

by peskylilcritter



Category: Leverage
Genre: Developing Relationship, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 03:32:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17973659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peskylilcritter/pseuds/peskylilcritter
Summary: Eliot, Parker and Alec, growing and changing. Becoming.





	Moments

There’s a moment, an almost, listening to an explosion while he’s staring at Hardison’s face, Parker at his shoulder, a moment when Eliot very nearly kisses Hardison.

But there’s no time. All they’ve done is avert the immediate threat; the real thing is still out there.

That’s not where it starts, but it’s where some things begin to end.

*

For Alec, it starts somewhere between raising his hands and hearing his bag hit the floor.

It’s easy to pinpoint the moment later, when he’s looking for it, although he doesn’t notice at the time.

*

By the time he can, without risking DC and a good chunk of the rest of the country, Eliot’s talked himself out of it.

Not really because he doesn’t want to, or even because he thinks Hardison doesn’t want to or that Parker would object. No, this is more about not wanting to upset the balance.

Maybe it’s also a little bit because Eliot wants to see how long it takes the other two to catch up.

*

Hardison understands feelings.

He’s certainly better at it than Parker, but he left her to take action. Maybe that’s why he waited for her, actually.

Alec understands feelings, and he knows Parker. That’s why they work.

They know each other. They understand each other. Alec feels and Parker does.

*

Nate’s proposal is...

A tipping point, of sorts.

He and Sophie leave, and the rest of the team have to rebalance around their absence.

It’s easier than it would’ve been a few years ago. Nate made it easier on them.

Eliot can appreciate that.

*

There are more moments, more almosts.

Of course there are. And of course those moments usually happen when there’s absolutely no chance Eliot can do anything about it.

It feels different, with Parker.

Probably that’s because Hardison and Parker are two very different people, and Eliot’s relationships with them work differently. Naturally Eliot would respond to them differently too.

Sometimes, when he’s reaching the end of his patience, he imagines what it would be like to kiss them.

*

The first time Eliot kisses him, it’s like being punched in the face.

A whole damn lot less painful but still. All surprise and breathlessness and close, so close, holy shitballs...

Eliot’s got very good timing or they’re just lucky because it takes Alec a few minutes to reboot his brain.

*

Eliot doesn’t think much about the height difference except when he kisses Hardison. It’s not the biggest difference he’s ever dealt with, but Hardison doesn’t have hair Eliot can hold on to when he wants to pull him down.

The first time Parker kisses him she’s upside down, hanging from one of her rigs, and Hardison spends the next two weeks laughing about spider kisses.

Whatever the hell that means.

*

Eliot doesn’t get sick.

Eliot does not get sick, so Alec panics when he catches the flu.

(The memory of DC, of how close they came, makes a small terrified part of him freeze into solid ice until Eliot’s healthy again.)

And because they’re just that lucky, it happens during a con.  
The entire plan goes out the window, Parker and Alec rush to finish the job, and Eliot’s fever gets so high Alec gets seriously worried his brain will straight up cook inside his skull.  
*  
It starts, one way or the other, somewhere between the roof and the exit.

Somewhere between Hardison handing out earbuds and the three of them getting into Nate’s car during that first job, they begin the path from discrete entities to a single unit comprised of three symbiotic organisms.

It starts, one way or the other, and it doesn’t ever end.


End file.
